At the end of 2023, the population of Israel reached almost 9.7 million permanent residents. Jewish residents formed the largest religious group, with just over 7.15 million people. The Muslim population in the country, formed the largest religious minority at over 1.7 million individuals. Conversely, the smallest religious group was that of the Druze with about 151,000 people.

Jews were the dominant religious group in the Israel-Palestine region at the beginning of the first millennia CE, and are the dominant religious group there today, however, there was a period of almost 2,000 years where most of the world's Jews were displaced from their spiritual homeland. Antiquity to the 20th century Jewish hegemony in the region began changing after a series of revolts against Roman rule led to mass expulsions and emigration. Roman control saw severe persecution of Jewish and Christian populations, but this changed when the Byzantine Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion in the 4th century. Christianity then dominated until the 7th century, when the Rashidun Caliphate (the first to succeed Muhammad) took control of the Levant. Control of region split between Christians and Muslims intermittently between the 11th and 13th centuries during the Crusades, although the population remained overwhelmingly Muslim. Zionism until today Through the Paris Peace Conference, the British took control of Palestine in 1920. The Jewish population began growing through the Zionist Movement after the 1880s, which sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Rising anti-Semitism in Europe accelerated this in the interwar period, and in the aftermath of the Holocaust, many European Jews chose to leave the continent. The United Nations tried facilitating the foundation of separate Jewish and Arab states, yet neither side was willing to concede territory, leading to a civil war and a joint invasion from seven Arab states. Yet the Jews maintained control of their territory and took large parts of the proposed Arab territory, forming the Jewish-majority state of Israel in 1948, and acheiving a ceasefire the following year. Over 750,000 Palestinians were displaced as a result of this conflict, while most Jews from the Arab eventually fled to Israel. Since this time, Israel has become one of the richest and advanced countries in the world, however, Palestine has been under Israeli military occupation since the 1960s and there are large disparities in living standards between the two regions.

Between Oct. 14, 2014, and May 21, 2015, Pew Research Center, with generous funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Neubauer Family Foundation, completed 5,601 face-to-face interviews with non-institutionalized adults ages 18 and older living in Israel.

The survey sampling plan was based on six districts defined in the 2008 Israeli census. In addition, Jewish residents of West Bank (Judea and Samaria) were included.

The sample includes interviews with 3,789 respondents defined as Jews, 871 Muslims, 468 Christians and 439 Druze. An additional 34 respondents belong to other religions or are religiously unaffiliated. Five groups were oversampled as part of the survey design: Jews living in the West Bank, Haredim, Christian Arabs, Arabs living in East Jerusalem and Druze.

Interviews were conducted under the direction of Public Opinion and Marketing Research of Israel (PORI). Surveys were administered through face-to-face, paper and pencil interviews conducted at the respondent's place of residence. Sampling was conducted through a multi-stage stratified area probability sampling design based on national population data available through the Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics' 2008 census.

The questionnaire was designed by Pew Research Center staff in consultation with subject matter experts and advisers to the project. The questionnaire was translated into Hebrew, Russian and Arabic, independently verified by professional linguists conversant in regional dialects and pretested prior to fieldwork.

The questionnaire was divided into four sections. All respondents who took the survey in Russian or Hebrew were branched into the Jewish questionnaire (Questionnaire A). Arabic-speaking respondents were branched into the Muslim (Questionnaire B), Christian (Questionnaire C) or Druze questionnaire (D) based on their response to the religious identification question. For the full question wording and exact order of questions, please see the questionnaire.

Note that not all respondents who took the questionnaire in Hebrew or Russian are classified as Jews in this study. For further details on how respondents were classified as Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze in the study, please see sidebar in the report titled "http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/08/israels-religiously-divided-society/" Target="_blank">"How Religious are Defined".

Following fieldwork, survey performance was assessed by comparing the results for key demographic variables with population statistics available through the census. Data were weighted to account for different probabilities of selection among respondents. Where appropriate, data also were weighted through an iterative procedure to more closely align the samples with official population figures for gender, age and education. The reported margins of sampling error and the statistical tests of significance used in the analysis take into account the design effects due to weighting and sample design.

In addition to sampling error and other practical difficulties, one should bear in mind that question wording also can have an impact on the findings of opinion polls.

According to a 2023 survey, over 43 percent of Jews in Israel were secular, while 11.3 identified as ultra-orthodox. On the other hand, less than ten percent of Muslims in Israel were non-religious, and almost 64 percent identified as religious.

In 2023, there were 179,400 Christians living in Israel. Christians of Arabic ethnic background accounted for the majority, with 141,800 individuals. Non-Arab Christians comprised 37,600 people in the country.

In 2023, the Jewish population had the highest total fertility rate in Israel, at an average of 3 births per woman. Muslim women, on the other hand, had a rate of 2.81 children. The Druze and Christian religious communities had a total fertility rate of 1.75 and 1.64, respectively.

In 2023, Jerusalem was the city with the largest population of Muslim residents in Israel, reaching 379,600 people. This represented about 38 percent of the city's total population. The town with the second-highest number of Muslims was Rahat, with 78,500 members of the religion. Rahat is a predominantly Bedouin city in southern Israel. Umm al-Fahm and Nazareth, both located in northern Israel, make up a sizeable portion of the Muslim community in Israel.

In 2023, more than 65 percent of Muslim families in Israel led a traditional lifestyle, in terms of religious practice. Religious or very-religious families, which made up over 25 percent of the Muslim population. On the other hand, only 5.4 percent of Muslim families were secular.

The number of households registered as Jewish in Israel reached roughly 2.36 million in 2023. In the same year, 469,300 households were registered as Arab, while 93,700 households were registered as belonging to population groups of other religions.

In 2022, around 31.6 percent of the global population were identify as Christian. Around 25.8 percent of the global population identify as Muslims, followed by 15.1 percent of global populations as Hindu.

In 2023, couples with children under the age of 17 made up 40 percent of Christian family households in Israel. Couples without children accounted for 21 percent, while couples with children over the age of 18 represented 20 percent of the Christian community.

According to a survey, nearly half of the Jewish population in Israel followed kosher practices consistently in accordance with the Jewish tradition. On the other hand, just over 30 percent of Jews did not keep kosher at all, and 23 percent mostly kept kosher.

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of Jews and Arabs in Israel concerning the role of the police in counterterrorism. The study focuses on the public perception of the effect of the police’s involvement in counterterrorism on their ability to perform traditional police roles; how the police’s role in fighting terrorism affects the relationship between police and the community; and the willingness of Jews and Arabs in Israel to assist the police by reporting crimes and terrorism threats. These questions are asked against the backdrop of majority-minority relations, in which the ways both the majority Jewish population and the minority Arab population in Israel responds are examined. Data included in this study was gathered from a community survey. The computer software “Dvash” and the database “Bezek,” which includes all residents of Israel who have "land" phone lines were used to conduct the survey. The low response rate (58%) of the community survey limits the extent to which the results can be applied to the entire Israeli population. Variables affecting the data gathered include the respondent’s past experiences with the po lice, their religion or ethnicity, their trust in the capabilities of the police, and their views on the consequences of policing terrorism.

As of 2023, the youngest population group by religion in Israel were Muslims, with a median age of 24 years. On the other hand, the religious group was that of Christians of Arab ethnicity, at 35 years. The median age among Jews, the most populous group in the country, was 31.6.

Pew Research Center surveyed 13,122 adults across six countries in Asia about religious identity, beliefs, and practices, using nationally representative methods. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. They were conducted on mobile phones in Malaysia and Singapore. Local interviewers administered the survey from June to September 2022, in eight languages.

This survey is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, a broader effort by Pew Research Center to study religious change and its impact on societies around the world. The Center previously has conducted religion-focused surveys across sub-Saharan Africa; the Middle East-North Africa region and many countries with large Muslim populations; Latin America; Israel; Central and Eastern Europe; Western Europe; India; and the United States.

This survey includes three countries in which Buddhists make up a majority of the population (Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand); two countries with Muslim majorities (Malaysia and Indonesia); and one country that is religiously diverse, with no single group forming a majority (Singapore). We also are surveying five additional countries and territories in Asia, to be covered in a future report.

Pew Research Center has produced a supplemental syntax file containing SPSS code to generate common analytic variables in the survey's corresponding report and toplines. The ARDA has provided this syntax in a copyable PDF document as an additional download.

Israel Population: 2008 Census: excl Foreign Workers: Avg: Jews and Others data was reported at 7,062.300 Person th in Oct 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 7,050.600 Person th for Sep 2018. Israel Population: 2008 Census: excl Foreign Workers: Avg: Jews and Others data is updated monthly, averaging 6,441.050 Person th from Jan 2009 (Median) to Oct 2018, with 118 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 7,062.300 Person th in Oct 2018 and a record low of 5,922.800 Person th in Jan 2009. Israel Population: 2008 Census: excl Foreign Workers: Avg: Jews and Others data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Central Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Israel – Table IL.G001: Population. The group 'Jews and others' includes Jews, population not classified by religion and non-Arab Christians.

The average life expectancy of Jewish women in Israel in 2022 was 85.1 years, the highest among all groups. This was followed by Muslim women with a life expectancy of 81.8 years, and Jewish men at 81.5 years of age. Muslim men had the lowest life expectancy of 77 years. Over the period observed, the life expectancy of both Jewish and Muslim populations increased, with women consistently living longer their male counterparts.

In 2023, Druze nuclear families in Israel predominantly consisted of couples with children under the age of 17, making up 55 percent of family households. Couples with children over the age of 18 accounted for 26 percent, while couples without children represented 11 percent of the Druze family units.

In 2023, the population of Muslims in Israel was estimated at 1.77 million. This marked an increase of 2 percent compared to the previous year. The Muslim community in the country formed the largest religious minority in the country.

Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Christian for Israel USA